Tourism news, views, advice and information gathering, on behalf of the East Timor (Timor Leste) Tourism Association.
To contribute, please email material to attl_vp@hotmail.com, or post a comment directly. If you have a tourism-related business in East Timor, let us know your company details. If you need tourism information, email us. If you would like to share your best photo of our beautiful country, send us a jpeg file (0.5Mb max.)and we'll post it.

The Timor Leste Government's Directorate of Tourism has received stocks of a wonderful, updated tourism information CD-ROM, prepared by the Portuguese NGO Gertil. Entitled "Turismo in Timor - Eastern Paradise", it has interactive maps that enable you to travel virtually around the country, clicking on destinations to see photos and video. There's also some nice traditional Timorese music on it. This is what gets handed out at trade shows such as PATA. If you'd like a copy, or several to hand out to your guests, either contact the Tourism Directorate or pick them up at FreeFlow Dive Centre.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

This blog offers a space to any tourism business in Timor Leste to post their details. People do use the internet to plan their trips when they are independent travellers, as many are who come to this country. We are working on plans for ATTL, the Timor Leste Government and as many tourism businesses as possible to participate in the upcoming PATA Travel Mart in Bali in September. We will have an ATTL meeting about that once the government has finalised its plans. So it's time to make sure that you have lots of brochures to hand out! If you can't go to Bali, we'll hand them out for you.I was also very impressed to stumble across a Dili restaurant, Sanan Rai, which has started its own blog. Way to go. Blogs are easy and cost you nothing. See what Sanan Rai have done at http://sananrai.blogspot.com/ . So email me attl_vp@hotmail.com with your company information and photos (jpeg) and I will post them here for you.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Yes, we have our first National Park in Timor Leste. Here are the details. Does anybody out there have a beautiful photo of the area that I could post here, to show why it's so important to protect it?Email me a JPEG at attl_vp@hotmail.com.

The following is a press release from the Prime Minister's Office (in English and the official languages, Tetun and Portuguese):

---OOO--- Gabinete do primeiro-ministro

Media Release

Government establishesnino konis santana nationAL PARK

IN the eastern tip of Timor-Leste, its 68,000 hectares of landand 55,600 of sea aim to conserve a very rich national heritage

Dili, 27 July 2007 – In its meeting Friday, 27 July, the Government of Timor-Leste formally approved the declaration of “Nino Konis Santana National Park” as the first National Park in its national Protected Area Network.Timor-Leste is internationally recognized as a high priority for terrestrial and marine biodiversity conservation. Globally it occurs within the region of ‘Wallacea’, an area rich in diverse and unique biota, and is located within the ‘Coral Triangle’ an area with the greatest biodiversity of coral and reef fish in the world.The joint terrestrial and marine National Park has been widely consulted and developed in close collaboration with local communities living within the area.The Government of Timor-Leste with continuing assistance from BirdLife International and the Australian New South Wales State Government Department of Environment and Climate Change is ensuring an enlightened approach of collaborative, joint management between the Government and local communities in collaboration with civil society.This approach will ensure equity of benefits to local communities, protection and management of unique biodiversity, conservation of watersheds and recognition of traditional ownership, use and continued residence for local communities.The National Park is established as an internationally recognized IUCN Management Category V Protected Landscape/Seascape where the traditional, cultural and spiritual interactions of local people and nature are maintained in a way that protects the environment and provides sustainable livelihoods for local communities.The National Park incorporates the entire eastern tip of Timor-Leste encompassing approximately 68,000 hectares of land and 55,600 hectares of sea, a total of 123,600 hectares and aims to conserve a rich and extensive natural, cultural and historical heritage. It conserves an extensive range of land and seascapes and will protect nationally and globally significant flora and fauna species and habitats on both land and sea, including extensive coral reefs and one of the largest remaining intact examples of tropical lowland and monsoon rainforest in the region.The National Park is named in honour of Nino Konis Santana, national hero and former Commander of FALANTIL, the armed wing of the resistance movement in the struggle for independence who was born in the village of Tutuala within the National Park.The area was a stronghold of the resistance movement during the struggle for independence. It holds continuing deep mythological, cultural and historical significance for the people of Timor-Leste. Continuously occupied for over 40,000 years, the area is rich in archaeological heritage and has many sites from the colonial Portuguese and World War II Japanese occupation periods.

We are still receiving an occasional email generated by Timor Leste’s participation at BITE 2007 (Beijing International Travel Expo) last June. Now, the Timor Leste Embassy to Beijing is working on an International Eco-Tourism Exhibition in Nanchang next October. Below is an email from Tony Duarte at the Embassy about promotional material and also some information about the Chinese outbound travel market.

---OOO---

Dear Everyone,

Greetings from the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in Beijing, China

We are, at this stage, compiling information in relation to our intended participation in China (Nanchang) International Eco-tourism Exhibition and Award Tourism Conference, which will be held from 21 – 23 October 2007, in which we are going to market Timor-Leste’s tourism attractions to potential buyers of Timor-Leste tourism packages. The event’s primary focus is on eco-tourism.

For the event, we are going to produce a booklet, which will be of interest to the visiting potential buyers.

Should you have tourism packages on offer that you wish to be included in our brochure that will be of interest to potential Chinese and other international visitors during the event, please send us the necessary information about your company and the packages on offer.

Please note that we do not charge any fees. Our request to include your company’s profile and packages on offer is free of charge.

Should you have further question, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The ATTL is also preparing for the PATA Travel Mart in Bali in September. Watch out on this site for the announcement of date of the next ATTL meeting, when we’ll be able to pass on some information from the Government of Timor Leste about our participation.